Al-Zawahri has succeeded Bin Laden

Al-Qaeda says Al-Zawahri has succeeded Bin Laden

Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahri.

          Al-Qaida has selected its longtime succeed Osama Bin Laden following last month’s US commando raid that killed the top terror leader, according to a statement posted Thursday on a website selected with the network.

          Ayman Al-Zawahri, who is believed to be operating near the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.

          He is the son of an upper middle class Egyptian family of doctors and scholars. His father was a pharmacology professor at Cairo University’s medical school and his grandfather was the grand imam of Al-Azhar University, a premier center of religious study.

          Al-Zawahri warned that America faces not individual terrorists but an international community of Muslims that seek to destroy it and its allies.

          “He went to his God as a martyr, the man who terrified America while alive and terrifies it in death, so much so that they trembled at the idea of his having tomb,” he said.

          Al-Qaeda gave no details about the selection process for Bin Laden’s successor but said that it was the best tribute to the memory of its “martyrs.”

          The statement announcing Al-Zawahri’s succession was filled with the terror network’s usual rhetoric. The group also said it will never accept Israel’s legitimacy and will continue to support Muslims in Afghanistan, Iraq and North Africa.

          The Al-Qaeda statement also stated the group’s support for this year’s popular uprisings in Egypt, Tunisia, Yemen, Syria and Libya.